New Section: Outlines

Today we are excited to take the covers off our latest addition to Toodledo:

Outlines

This is an entirely new section on Toodledo; you'll see the tab for it at the top of the page. An outline is a place for you to organize projects, take notes and store other hierarchical information. You can use an outline to brainstorm, organize your homework, plan a business report, or break a project down into smaller pieces. It supports unlimited levels of hierarchy, so you can use an outline to break projects down into subtasks and sub-subtasks and sub-sub-subtasks if you want.

We've been using this internally and with beta testers for a few months, and we've had really positive feedback. To get started, please check out our tutorial and sample outlines available inside the Outlines section.

I....I'm speechless....I've wanted this basic, simple functionality in an iOS app for....well....ever since I can remember. I can't really verbalize how insanely happy I am with this new Outline feature....when it comes to iOS, I might seriously pass out from joy. This will make my work so immeasurably easier, it's just nuts.

Add in the ability to link an outline to a task, and....holy crap.....thank you, thank you, thank you....

Outlines have a very good interface. Do you planning update your old interface for tasks?

Outlines look like google tasks :) But when I work with google task I can you use arrow keys for move cursor from one note to other. It more helpful, You have not to use mouse.

When I delete a note in the outlines a new window appears and it is not useful. I havу to use mose to delete notes. It will be more useful if I can apply something like "ctrl + z". If I delete one note or note with subnotes by accident I could to restore them.

Well, I for one am very disappointed. Once again entirely new functionality has been added rather than improving on what has been here for a while that needs enhancements. It's obvious from the comments so far that many are pleased. But I would have much preferred you had added dependencies or saved views (with filter and sort setting preserved) or search and replace. Instead, we get outlines. I might use this feature somewhere down the line, but not nearly as much as I would use the ones I've mentioned and a dozen others that we've been clamoring for for YEARS! Outlining is available other places, and since, as yet, your outlines don't even link to tasks or notes, why would we need it here?

I really, really wish you'd get back to improving the functionality of what is already one of the best task management systems available. As good as it is, it definitely needs improvement, not bells and whistles that add little to it's basic function as a task manager. It's beginning to feel to me like you've lost your way, Jake. I sincerely hope not.

I particularly agree, it is a bit disappointing. Why isn't this part of subtasks?
Why do I need to stick to a single level when using subtasks but have unlimited levels here?
Well, merge this with the tasks, this belongs there.

No way of classifying the outlines, e.g. Folders, Contexts, Tags.
No Date Completed.
No Dates that can be modified by the user.
No Notes.
No Filters.
No links to Tasks or Notebook.
No ability to copy a branch.
No ability to uncheck all items in a branch.
No ability to automatically create numbered lists.
No indication of proportion of items completed.
No ability to export data.

Seems to me that this is still in Beta (or even Alpha, depending on what are considered the main features.)

Have I missed something? How is this, in principle, any different from a dummed down hierarchical tasks?

The key improvement is the multiple levels of hierarchy, but we've lost the bulk of the features of a Toodledo task.

Why not just allow multiple levels of hierarchy in tasks? That might be really useful ...

Your beta testers have dropped dramatically in my esteem if they have not made these comments back to you.

I echo the concerns of others: Please spend your valuable time developing requested-for features and not coming up with other products that the fans here will soon find inadequate - in this case, because it doesn't link to tasks / notes.

This could be really useful if tasks and notes could be linked to each item. Do that and I'll be a fan ...

This looks like an interesting feature with planned enhancements across the web and iOS platforms. I'm struggling, like a few others in here, to understand the driver for this and therefore how i can exploit this in my workflows.

Can you outline what your vision is for this and what it will be like when development is complete? What purpose does this serve and how will this relate to the other features within Toodledo?

Have I missed something? How is this, in principle, any different from a dummed down hierarchical tasks?

The key improvement is the multiple levels of hierarchy, but we've lost the bulk of the features of a Toodledo task.

Why not just allow multiple levels of hierarchy in tasks? That might be really useful ...

Your beta testers have dropped dramatically in my esteem if they have not made these comments back to you.

I echo the concerns of others: Please spend your valuable time developing requested-for features and not coming up with other products that the fans here will soon find inadequate - in this case, because it doesn't link to tasks / notes.

This could be really useful if tasks and notes could be linked to each item. Do that and I'll be a fan ...

Cheers,

I did participate in beta testing and I did mention the subtasks since this is one feature I would like as well, at least one more level of subtask or subfolder.

However one point I did make while beta testing, is that this goes a long way in working around lack of subtasks. In fact I am starting to like it more and more. In particular it is much much faster to add items into a hierarchy with infinite levels than it would be to create tasks one at a time. I am finding that when I need the extra levels of subtasks, outlines are more than enough, the reason is that if I am doing more fine grained task planning, I don't really need all the extra overhead of a full task. So for this, I in fact prefer the speed and ease of use of the outline.

One feature I did propose during beta testing is that there would be an "export to task list" button which could convert the outline to a hierarchy of tasks. If someday full subtask support is added, this would really be brilliant.

I think the examples give a pretty good idea of what they could be used for, for me, they seem a good fit for "reference data", ie information that doesn't have a concept of task or due date etc. I think of it more for note taking, brainstorming or a place to store information i.e maybe I could use this instead of evernote so that everything is in the same place. But I can see the use of converting an item to a task / linking which sounds like it's on its way.